People must work together, and with the authorities, to solve Eastbourne’s pavements problem

Marie Hennelly with Councillors and campaigners who want County Council to improve pavements in Eastbourne (Photo by Jon Rigby) SUS-190620-080902008

It was many years ago that I donated thousands of pounds to improve the pavements along Eastbourne seafront.

Indeed, I still have a picture on my office wall of when I handed the money over to Nigel Waterson, the then MP of Eastbourne.

East Sussex County Council has full responsibility for pavements and the cheque was duly passed to them.

That is why I have read with great interest articles in the last two Heralds about the appalling state of our pavements in Eastbourne.

Two weeks ago you reported that a petition had been launched calling for proper funding to fix the appalling pavements.

I am pleased to see residents lobbying the county council to finance improvements and I salute Marie Hennelly for being at the helm. Good luck to you.

And then last week you reported residents’ views on the situation with a unanimous view that action is needed.

It was also interesting to read last week that the county council has underspent by £8 million, although I was surprised that our borough council leader David Tutt was not calling for that money to be spent in Eastbourne.

He is the leader of the opposition on East Sussex County Council but he seemed to be fairly apologetic, saying the money not spent was one-offs.

Well, I strongly believe this is a matter of hearts and minds, and yes of course funding.

History has taught us not to rely on East Sussex County Council for funding, and we realise their budgets have been cut from central government in the past.

But they have choices and they have priorities.

All those years ago we succeeded in getting our pavements sorted out along the seafront. Now the same must be done across the rest of our town.

People must get together, work with the authorities, all with a common goal.

It really is a matter of hearts and minds.

Eastbourne is a lovely town but the pavements are letting us down and we expect our councillors to come to the fore over this because us residents want action, and I believe we all want it now.

Hearts and minds please.